One more bay opened at Morganza Floodway
One more bay has been opened at the Morganza Floodway, bringing the total to 16.

Birds fly over the Morganza Floodway after it opened Saturday May 14, 2011 in Batchelor, Louisiana to lower the height of the Mississippi River and the potential flooding of Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.
Having that extra bay has increased the flow through that structure from 102,000 cubic feet per second to 108,000 cubic feet per second, Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Rachel Rodi said today.
The Morganza Floodway has 125 bays.
Nothing has changed at the Bonnet Carre Spillway, where 330 of the 350 bays are open.
"The system is working as intended," Rodi said.One more bay opened at Morganza Floodway | NOLA.com

The Mississippi River floodwaters flowing through the Morganza Floodway continued to move south on Tuesday, but much more slowly than original Army Corps of Engineers estimates that relied heavily on rates from the 1973 flood.

"I'm just going to relax and wait for the water," said Keith Girouard as he relaxes on the porch of his brother Tommy Girouard's houseboat. The brothers plan to ride out the flooding in Butte LaRose on the boat. Residents of the community are preparing their homes for the coming flood waters Tuesday, May 17, 2011 after the Morganza Floodway was opened, sending waters rushing down the Atchafalaya Basin.
The wait for water gallery (15 photos)
And with three dogs yipping and playing behind him, Cal Evans remained set in stone.
The 52-year-old Army veteran, sporting matching camouflage T-shirt and sneakers, said he’s not leaving his Krotz Springs home despite the mandatory evacuation order. The day before, on Monday, his next-door neighbor was flagging down cars, warning them to leave the area, assuming they were looters.
About 20 miles south, in Butte LaRose, brothers Tommy and Keith Girouard are ready to ride out whatever comes on their 60-foot Sumerset boat, and readily boast “we got more (guns) than an army does” and if looters “come looking for copper, well, we’re going to give them lead.”
The floodway water is not expected to reach Butte LaRose for a few days, and then it’s that “backwash effect” that could affect Krotz Springs as the sudden introduction of floodway water into the Atchafalaya River could cause the water to elevate upstream, explained Garron Ross, who runs the U.S. Geological Survey’s Louisiana Water Science Center in Baton Rouge.
While St. Landry Parish President Don Menard said he called his evacuation order for low-lying areas of Krotz Springs on Sunday after corps estimates predicted water would begin overflowing there by Monday, Menard now says he’s not anticipating seeing water “until probably this weekend or as late as Monday of next week.” And while originally estimated at 15 to 20 feet, Menard now said it looks like the worst flooding in Krotz Springs will be closer to 5 to 10 feet.
So a mad rush by many to evacuate homes now has many disgruntled, and those who decided to remain behind are playing a waiting game.
Evans said that while he doesn’t expect much, he’s ready for whatever comes.
“I’ve lived here too long to worry about it,” he said. “If it happens, it happens.”

Based on a reduced Mississippi River flow, the Army Corps of Engineers has closed three bays on the Morganza Floodway.

3 Morganza Floodway bays closed | NOLA.com
The first surge of water through the Morganza Floodway on May 14 is seen in this screen grab from a video feed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
One bay was closed on Tuesday, and two more were shut on Wednesday afternoon, leaving 14 bays open, corps spokesman Ken Holder said. The discharge rate has been reduced from 170,000 cubic feet per second to 140,000 cubic feet per second.
The Morganza Floodway, which diverts Mississippi River water into the Atchafalaya River, was opened May 14.
As a result of the bay closings, cities and towns in the Atchafalaya Basin will get "a little less water than what we had been sending," Holder said.
The corps acted after learning that the river's flow at Red River Landing, upriver from Baton Rouge, had dropped, he said.
Holder declined to speculate when or whether the corps might close more bays.
"We're monitoring the flow very carefully and are staying on top of it," Holder said. "This is something we're doing minute by minute, hour by hour."